Always. A safety backup should be kept of all unique accessions under ideal conditions. See also the general page on safety duplication procedures.

If possible, every genebank should have a base collection for long-term backup on site.

Black-box safety duplication should be used by crop genetic resource conservation networks, in a genebank of choice.

A secondary “ultimate” backup at the Svalbard Global Seed Bank is ideal.

In some cases, it is beneficial to have germplasm incorporated into the active collection of a sister genebank. In the case of integration of the safety duplicates, the recipient genebank will need to register the accessions.

A research assistant for CIMMYT’s wheat germplasm
collection prepares a shipment of seeds from CIMMYT
to be sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (photo: CIMMYT)

Minimum sample size

A regeneration set of at least 512 seeds of each accession should be sent to the designated or collaborating genebank as black-box safety duplicates.

See also recommendations from the general page on safety duplication procedures of this site.

Viability for storage

Seed viability above 85% is preferred.

See also recommendations from the general page on safety duplication procedures of this site.

Moisture content

Seed moisture content should be 6-8%.

See also recommendations from the general page on safety duplication procedures of this site.

Container specifications

To ensure both seed viability in the genebank and accession safety en route to the users.

Seed packaging method

One or two aluminum foil pouches should be packaged with the dried seeds as mentioned above for the base collection.

For the black-box, several pouches of the seed samples should be included in a cardboard or plastic box that can be placed in the racks of the designated or collaborating genebank.

FAO/IPGRI. 1994. Genebank standards. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome and International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome. Available in English, Spanish, French and Arabic .